Nicky Hayden won his first MotoGP world championship on Sunday after Valentino Rossi lost control of his bike at the season-ending race in Valencia.
Rossi, the pre-race standings leader, fell on a bend in lap five.
Troy Bayliss of Australia won the race in 46 minutes, 55 seconds on a Ducati.
Honda rider Hayden finished third in 47:04 behind Loris Capirossi in a race that was radically changed by Rossi's fall.
The seven-time champion's Yamaha appeared to lose grip on a bend and skidded sideways off the track. Rossi was able to recover from the fall and eventually finished 13th.
Hayden's Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa of Spain finished fourth in 47:07, while Capirossi crossed the line in 46:56.
"I really don't know what to say," a tearful Hayden said after the race. "Thanks to my team, my family, my friends for giving me this opportunity. I've wanted to be world champion all my life and I'm just really proud."
Rossi, nicknamed "the Doctor," had a poor start, with the front of his bike kicking up as he released the clutch off the starting line, forcing him to fall back into seventh place at the end of the first lap.
While trying to make up time, Rossi's tires lost grip on lap five, sending him off the course. He had to pick up his bike off the gravel and rejoined the race 25 seconds behind the leaders.
The last two races could not have been more different for Hayden. The US rider crashed last time out in the Portuguese GP at Estoril. Teammate Dani Pedrosa sideswiped Hayden while trying to overtake on the fifth lap at Estoril, causing the crash.
In order to win, Hayden believed he had to win at Valencia while Rossi placed no higher than third.
Hayden called that chance "a remote possibility."
It was only the third time in the history of the premier class that a rider in second place in the standings going into the final race ended up winning the title.
Italian great Giacomo Agostini did it to take the first of his eight 500cc world titles when he overtook Mike Hailwood in 1966 and US rider Wayne Rainey repeated the feat in 1992 when he pipped Mick Doohan to the championship.
Hayden scored points in every grand prix except in Portugal, winning two races and finishing on the podium in 10 of the 17 rounds of the championship. Rossi won five races but failed to get the points in three.
The US rider finished five points ahead of Rossi in the standings, while Capirossi overtook fellow Italian Marco Melandri to take third place in the championship by a point.
The battle for the series title overshadowed Bayliss' victory in the race, but the Australian's win was also a remarkable achievement.
The 37-year-old, who won the World Superbike championship this year, only took part in the race as a replacement for the injured Sete Gibernau.
"It has been a fairytale weekend, actually it has been a fairytale year after winning the Superbike championship," Bayliss said.
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